Texas has nation’s most minimum-wage workers

Texas had the most minimum-wage workers last year, accounting for nearly 13 percent of all such workers across the country, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, the same rate as Texas’.

Some 452,000 Texans — and nearly 3.6 million people nationwide — earned the federal minimum wage or less in 2012. Under the minimum wage, a person working 40 hours a week would make $15,080 a year.

Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, noted that Texas also has been growing its middle-income tier of workers faster than the nation.

“Texas is the biggest job creator in the country in all four job quartiles,” Fisher said Tuesday while at The Dallas Morning News for an editorial meeting. He was referring to the government’s four wage groups — lowest, lower-middle, upper-middle and highest wages.

Last year, however, the number of Texans making minimum wage or less fell by 21,000. They accounted for 7.5 percent of all hourly workers in the state, down from 8 percent in 2011.

The share of those workers also dropped nationwide, accounting for 4.7 percent of all hourly workers in 2012, down from 5.2 percent in 2011.

“The declines are really not surprising,” said Cheryl Abbot, a BLS regional economist in Dallas. “The last minimum-wage increase took place in 2009. Some of those people, not all, would have received wage increases in the last couple of years.”

This year has brought two proposals to raise the federal minimum wage. President Barack Obama has proposed increasing it to $9 an hour by 2015. And two U.S. congressmen introduced a bill to gradually raise the rate to $10.10.

Who makes minimum wage?

The answer is more women and younger workers, according to BLS data.

Nearly one-third of minimum-wage workers nationally were teens, and about 45 percent were 25 or older.

More than half of all minimum-wage workers were employed in the leisure and hospitality industry, largely in restaurants and other food services. Tips supplement many of their hourly wages.

Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., have minimum wages higher than the federal rate.

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.